Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1)

JaysusMacfeck

Anyone watch this yesterday?

Barbara Windsor from EastEnders traces her maternal grandfather to the East London docks and finds that his mother was a matchgirl at the Bryant and May factory. Barbara's father's family has generations of Cockneys, mostly labourers or costermongers and barrow boys. She discovers that her mother's ancestors were Irish, leaving Cork after the potato famine, and that she's related to the artist Constable.

Halfway through the program she visits Cork to find out more about her mother's ancestors who emigrated from there during the famine. They were pennyless, didn't speak English, and had no choice but to live in one of the worst slums in London.

In the program, Barbara visits a mass burial ground in Cork with over 9,000 dumped bodies from the famine. The memorial site caretaker was giving her some information about the mass burial site. He said something to the affect of:

"When the English came to this area, the land was taken and these people died as a result of not being able to farm on the English-owned land." He wasn't bitter about what he said, he was just giving the facts as he would to any visitors to the site.

Barbra: "Oh, I didn't know that at all. I do love the Irish people. We were only taught about the potato famine. I feel so ashamed."

Well fair play to BBC for not editing out that segment. The famine is a subject that the BBC always refused to touch on. I was quite surprised when I watched it. A first for the beeb perhaps?

Interesting program all the same. Anyone see it?

gazzer

I watched this last night.. Thought it was a very good and interesting program..

mike65

I usually watch that programme (mised it last night though) The programme with Stephen Fry last series was particuarly powerful.

Mike.

limerick_man

Yeah, I saw it for the first time. Really thought it was great, funny how the Deeks turned out to be the upper class family!! And also the grandmother match box making was fasinating. Haha, she never knew she was Irish because 'it was the kind of thing (her) mother would hide'

wayland

I never new much about the famine while I lived in England. We were told it was the potato blight and thats about it. Now that I live in Ireland and visited the museums and the "Dunbrody". I now have a fuller picture. We the now living cannot be held responsible for the past, but I do feel shame for this. I have no problem with armies fighting armies. That is what they are there for, but this was just starving people. The only saving grace that I can see of the time was that a number of English MPs were calling for urgent action and send more aid. It seems though it was the individual running the Exchequer that was continually puttin on the breaks to this aid. Being "Hung Drawn and Quartered" would have been too good for this bloke.

J.R.HARTLEY

noone blames the current generation wayland don't be daft, the MPs pushing for action were the elected representatives from Ireland in the english parliament and their english allies in parliament the liberals.

but anyway this is about the program,
it has to be said i found the series so far to be very entertaining, i especially liked robert linseys episode